Mighty Sparrow - First Flight: Early Calypsos from the Emory Cook Collection

Mighty Sparrow's First Flight reflects his post-World War II Trinidadian world of bravado and high rhetoric, in which violence of tongue and hand, the cut and thrust of word and razor, were reduced to a finely honed skill. Sparrow's earliest calypsos served up unflinching social commentary, spun with invincible exuberance and literary panache, and set the pattern for the next four decades of his career. First Flight reminds us that calypso, in the hands of masters such as the Mighty Sparrow, is much more than party music. 75 minutes. 20-page booklet, historic photos.